Social support and the promotion of mental health within the cultural context of Americans of Filipino, Chinese, and Japanese descent will be investigated. Aims of the project include the understanding of the concomitants of social support for these populations which include many with health at risk because of their social, economic, political, and cultural status as minorities within a larger majority society. With a few exceptions, the epidemiology and literature for social support is absent of knowledge for Asian Pacific Americans. Other project aims include the exploration of the social context of personal exchange support functions such as emotional, judgment, and recreational support, as well as the contextual relation with the individual of those providing support. How professional health service provider can best interact with or augment the support network will be examined. Network support in times of major life events such as death, break-ups, major illness or injury, job changes, and major residential changes also will be studied. Finally, the determinants of social support for those chronically-ill as well as those "chronically-well" will be investigated. Background for the research is a recent cross-cultural study of social support. The initial theoretical framework for the research will be adapted from Antonovsky's salutogenic model of health showing social support, personal psycho-social attributes and health habits, socio-economic status, and cultural background as resources that can perhaps be summoned in times of stresses such as from social and environmental stresses, major life event changes, and daily hassles. Core variables for social support include race or ethnicity of the individual, sex, age, place of birth, marital status, education, occupation, income, reciprocation level, coping strategies, health status and other variables to be explored from a pilot study of 120 respondents in the first project year; Year 2 mostly is for the survey of about l,000 respondents for a sample size amenable to multivariate analysis (mostly multiway contingency table analysis) and other statistical analyses. Year 3 will end with data interpretation and final report preparation. The project is seen as advancing the research methodology and understanding of social support within a cultural context.